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Published: 20 April 2017

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St Petersburg University hosted a presentation of the multi-authored monograph "English Studies in Miniatures. A Dialogue of Cultures and Epochs". This book is focused on the findings obtained by SPbU scholars in the field of linguoculturology.

The multi-authored monograph genre is quite popular in the scientific community, yet the publication presented at the University bookstore in Mendeleevskaya Liniya differs from an ordinary collection of scientific papers. "Each chapter is a result of joint research carried out by a student and a their teacher. This student–teacher co-authorship is reflected in graduation projects of SPbU's future linguists: their master's, bachelor's or candidate's theses," said an editor of the monograph, SPbU Professor Elizaveta Khomyakova.

Linguoculturology is a relatively new interdisciplinary science, its subject being a nation's culture studied through the prism of language. "As scholars say, language is a mirror of culture. It reflects not only the real world surrounding the person, but also the mentality, national character, traditions, customs and values. It is also important that the language hands down the nation's treasures from generation to generation," noted Tatyana Petukhova, SPbU Associate Professor, Candidate of Philology and one of the authors of the monograph.

It is noteworthy that this collection of papers is of interest not only to linguists specialising in English studies, but also to non-specialist audiences. For example, one of the chapters is dedicated to Twitter as a linguistic phenomenon, while another chapter, devoted to the analysis of Ruskin's and Dickens's art criticism of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, is found side by side with a review of humorous interpretation of friendly relations as illustrated by the American TV series "Friends", which exerted great influence on the linguistic landscape reaching far beyond America. It is from this TV sitcom that the Russian language borrowed a popular stock phrase "friend zone". It is widely used in Russian now, describing a situation when one of the friends wants the relationship go a romantic path, while the other one does not seek that.

The presentation of the monograph published by St Petersburg University Press featured the authors speaking about the history of the book and the content of each chapter.

"Scientific publications need help in finding their readers. Today's event, when the authors present their book themselves, is an additional way to make potential readers get acquainted with the contents," said Elena Lebedkina, Director of St Petersburg University Press.